As I’d said in my last blog from jail, I wanted to wait until I was released to tell the stories of some of the people I met in jail, both prisoners and guards. As you might expect, the jail is full of people who are peaceful and have not harmed other human beings. Many of the guards realize that they are caging good people, the superintendent is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and the jail kitchen staff is also open minded.
Names will not be used here to protect the innocent. Besides, the jail is full of people like the ones you’ll hear about, at any given time of the year.
“Honey, I’m home!”, yells one prisoner as the jail guards walk him into the dayroom. Welcome to R block in the Cheshire “House of Corrections”, or as some like to call it, the “Keene Spiritual Retreat”. Many of these guys have been here before and they recognize the gentleman who has just entered the block. This happens all the time. It’s not because they are career criminals, it’s usually because of “Violation of Probation”. (more…)
Philip Dale Pregent, who did not run for re-election as mayor, was the top vote-getter with 1,522 votes; he was followed by incumbent Kris E. Roberts (1,256), incumbent Ruth R. Venezia (1,045); Carl B. Jacobs (925) and David Meader (721).
They bested Joseph W. Bendzinski (668), Robert B. Sutherland Jr. (645), Steven W. Lindsey (594), Dorrie Faulkner O’Meara (429) and Heika Courser (208).
I am surprised by some of these results. I was using the results of the primary to predict the results of the general election, expecting that the vote totals would be roughly proportional in both cases. This was largely true, with two glaring exceptions.
Steve Lindsey (endorsed by me) did worse than predicted. Bob Sutherland (endorsed by Ian) did better than predicted.
Lindsey has suggested that the order of names on the ballet would depress his vote total. (The order of the names is decided by performance in the primary, with highest vote-getters at the top. Since Lindsey tied for fifth in the primary with David Meader, the order of the two was decided randomly. Meader got the fifth spot, and Lindsey the sixth.) If ballot ordering was the cause, then that hit him particularly hard, costing him over one hundred votes.
At the moment, I have no theory to explain Sutherland’s strong performance.
I want to know what’s driving these two exceptions. It would be helpful to have a more accurate model for future elections.
Ward 2 incumbent Pam Slack, who has had a contentious relationship with liberty activists over the years, lost the election tonight to Bettina Chadbourne.
